.! '1

50 On Kapembwa and Chtsumphi possession, see the respective papers in this volume; on Chami­ nuka posses~wn seeS. Madztytre, 'Heathen practices in the urban and rural parts of the Marandellas I Explorations in the History and Sociology area and then effects upon Chnstianity', m Ranger and Weller, Themes, 76-82. of Territorial Cults in Zambia1 51 cf J Goody, Technology, Tradttton and the State m Afnca (London, Oxford Umv. Press, 1?71), 65-6, who notes that Str James Frazer has also drawn attention to the parallel between this btbhca1 snuauon and that of a terntoria1 cult among the Mossi of West Mrica. W.M.J. VAN BINSBERGEN 52 Schoffe1eers, 'The mteraction of the Mbona cult and Christianity', 25. 53 J.P.R. Walhs (ed ), The Zambez. Expedttwn of Damd Ltvmgstone (London, Chatto and

Wmdus, 2 vols, 1956), (I), 87; D. and C. Ltvingstone, Narrative of an ExpeditiOn to the Zambez1 and Its Trzbutarzes, and of the Dtscovery of Lakes Shtrwa and Nyassa 1858-1864 (London J M rr 1865), 47 ' ' · u ay,

54 I Schapera, Ram-Makmg Riles of Tswana Tnbes (Le'yden, Afrika Studiecentrum, 1971), 3. 55 S. ,MadZlyire, 'An Obstacle Race towards Understanding Bernard Mizeki, the Mashonaland The Territorial Cult in the Zambian Context Martyr (Lusaka, Con~erence on the History of Central Mrican Religious Systems, 1972). At the same conference Fr MadZ!yire also gave oral information on the miracles believed to have happened at Territorial cult and shrine cult: This is a general essay on Zambia in a Arthur Cnpps's grave shnne. volume that revolves around the application of the analytical concept 56 The Malawi SoCiety Library, Blantyre, Papers of W.H.J. Rangeley, l/1/3, M. Metcalfe to of the territorial cult to Central Africa. Schoffeleers has tentatively de­ Rangeley, 9 Aug. 1952. fined this concept as 57 R.C. Woollacott, 'Dziwaguru- God of Rain', NADA (1963), 40, 116-21. an institution of spirit veneration, proper to a land area, whose 58 See below, Schoffeleers, 'The Chisumpht and Mbona Cults', 167, 184, n.96. primary concern is the material and moral well-being of its 59 M.L. _Golola, 'Tr~dltlonal L~gitimacy and the Ineffectiveness of the Appeal to Primacy' (Univ. population, archetypically represented by its rain-calling func­ of Malawi, Dep. of Htstory, Semmar Paper, 1973); I am indebted to Mr Golola, of the University of tion, and whose immediate control is institutionally limited to Kampala, for-permission to quote his paper. ·anelite.2 60 Thts ts a maJor thests in W M.J. Van Bmsbergen, 'Rehgtous Change m Western Zamb a: 1 This definition identifies what in fact has been one of the main Towards a Synthests' (Lusaka, Umv. of Zambta, Conference on the Htstory of Central Afncan Reh­ r gtous Systems, 1972). forms of religion in Central Africa. Most of the religious institutions to be discussed in this essay comply with this definition and can conveniently be called territorial cults. However, in order to present these religious institutions, analytically and historically, in their inter­ relation with other institutions, I find it useful to introduce an addi­ tional amilytical concept: the shrine cult. Territorial cults as defined above are not necessarily shrine cults. The concern for the material and moral well-being of the population of a particular land area need not focus on shrines. Alternative ways in which this concern can be institutionalized are, for example, prophets who are only loosely attached, if at all, to shrines;3 other specialists who claim magical control over rain and fertility and who are profes­ sionally employed by their individual or communal clientele when­ ever the need arises;4 the concentration of power over rain, land and fertility in such movable, non-shrine-like objects as the royal bracelets of the Lunda and the Luvale.5 Yet, as is borne out by the studies in the present volume, the most widespread and typical form of the territo­ rial cult in Central Africa is that of the shrine cult. What is a shrine? a number of characteristics seem to be relevant at the same time. First a shrine isan observable object or part of the natu- 46 47 distinguishes as many as six different types of shrines: an individual's ties at the shrine, and the nature of the invisible entities to whom the hut,10 the village shrine, villages of deceased chiefs, natural pheno­ shrines refer. mena, chiefs' burial groves and relic shrines containing the chiefly For these goals it seems fruitful to distinguish between the domes­ paraphernalia. These may all be of relevance simultaneously, though tic sphere (ranging, on our scale, from individual to neighbourhood) each in a different way, to the same localized set of people. This multi­ and the wider, interlocal sphere. Shrine activities in the interlocal plicity of shrine forms is by no means exceptional in Zambia and can­ sphere focus around two fundamentally different though frequently not be explained away by any particular religious or political charac­ merging principles: concern for a land area (the territorial cult), and teristics of the Bemba. Any sources that go into some detail on the sub­ chieftainship. Territorial shrine cults aim at ensuring the -success of ject reveal a similar multiplicity for other Zambian peoples, although the ecological activities in which the population is engaged (horticul­ the concrete forms may be different, and deceased chiefs' villages and ·ture, fishing, hunting, husbandry) and hence at the material, and ulti­ burial groves, for example, do not figure everywhere as shrines. mately moral, well-being of this population. Annual planting and An overall distinction can be made between shrines that are man­ first-fruit ceremonies form a common (though not universal)18 ele­ made and shrines that are not. The latter include: trees, groves, hills, ment throughout Zambia, and these are supplemented by occasional fields, pools, streams, falls and rapids. Occasionally these natural ceremonies in times of crisis (drought, famine, pests). Shrines asso­ shrines may be accentuated by the erection of man-made shrines, ciated with chieftainship are either chiefly graves or relic shrines con­ either permanent or temporary. 11 A transition between natural and taining the paraphernalia of deceased predecessors (such as drums, man-made shrines occurs when trees are purposely planted in order to gongs, bow-stands, and axes); access to them may be limited to the provide a shrine (on graves as in many parts of Zambia, and in the case ruler himself. These chiefly shrines play a major role in accession to of the muyobo tree, which is planted in the centre of the villages of chieftainship; their main function is to be a source of legitimacy for Southern Lunda, Luvale, Luchazi and related peoples),l2 or when the ruler. Chiefly shrines tend to assume ecological connotations, fol­ rudimentary constructions such as a pile of stones,13 two uprooted ant­ lowing a dialectical process which we shall explore below. hills placed one against the other, 14 or a branch or part of a tree trunk1s ] On the domestic level, village and neighbourhood shrines have are used as shrines. The typical form of the man-made shrine, how­ primarily territorial ecological reference. However, in addition to this ever, is a construction which, though often in miniature, is identical they may serve individual purposes as places where the living member to the normal thatched dwelling house or to the men's shelter (a of the village reports to the invisible, deceased members of the village thatched construction without walls, as found in the centre of villages community when departing for or coming back from a long journey, 19 in many parts of Zambia). Finally, graves may be used as shrines and the village shrines set the scene for rituals dealing with affliction either with or without a hut-like construction on top of them. ' attributed to ancestors.20 The shrines which kinsmen erect on the Concerning the set of people involved in the cult of a certain shrine grave of a deceased (usually after being summoned to do so at the lat­ (through direct participation, or through reference and implication), ter's deathbed, or later, through dreams or illness) do not primarily the following possibilities exist:16 the cult can be limited to one indivi­ serve an ecological purpose but rather spring from concern for indivi­ dual; limited to a small group of closely related individuals; it can be dual health and ultimately refer not to the land but to the local mini­ extended over a village or over a neighbourhood comprising several mal kin-group. Finally, there is a type of individual shrine, apparent­ neighbouring villages; a larger area which tends to be associated with ly universal in Zambia, by which the individual specialist tries to a chief, a senior headman or a localized dan-segment; a localized enhance his professional success by reference to direct ancestors or ethnic group (tribe); or a group of neighbouring tribes. This series re­ mythical beings associated with his skill: honey-collecting, hunting, presents a hierarchy of residential and political units; a quite different fishing, rain-calling, ironworking, dancing, divining and healing.21 dimension is manifested in the cultic group, whose recruitment typi­ Many of these skills have a direct ecological orientation; but even so, cally cuts across residential, kinship and political ties - as is the case their primary concern is the ecological success of the single individual with the modem shrine cults that I have discussed elsewhere,I7 with whom they are associated, rather than the general well-being of Ideas associated with the shrines revolve around two major issues: the land and of the total community. the goals and effects the believers hope to achieve through the activi- The participants' goals and purposes in the shrine cults refer to 50 51 invisible entities associated with the shrines. There exists a remarkable munication is established during the ritual. However, information on variety: recently deceased members of the kin group; lineage spirits in Zambian specialist mediumship other than in modern possession general; deceased local celebrities (diviners, dancers, doctors, hunters); movements is still too scanty to explore this issue further.33 The same deceased chiefs; a class of land spirits that lack historical or anthropo­ applies to the widespread Central African institution of the 'spirit morphic connotations, are anonymous and are normally referred to as wife', a woman (in some local variations represented by a male prie<>t) a collectivity (such as 'ngulu',22 'wowa');23 culture heroes;24 the High who has never married or who has given up her marriage in order to God;25 and finally the abstract, but often personified concepts that are engage in a close relationship with the spirit of the shrme. Scattered at the core of modem cults of affliction and that sometimes merge indications in the literature34 suggest that on further research this fea­ with the anonymous collective land spirits.26 ture may turn out to be as common in Zambia as it is in Malawi and These ideological aspects are related to the shrine cults in such a Zimbabwe. way as to suggest a systematic pattern. First, there are hardly any non­ modem shrines recorded as being directly and exclusively associated Tentative typology and distribution: With gross oversimplification, with the High God; the few examples in the literature consist of: a the above discussion leaves us with the following main types of temporary rain shrine among the Kaonde,27 a cursory remark on Lozi shrines and shrine cults for twentieth-century Zambia: village shrines,28 and the case of the supreme Chewa medium, Make­ wana, who reputedly communicated directly with the High God and (a) Shrines (natural or man-made) associated with interlocal territorial concern and normally in the control of priests; whose sphere of influence extended well into Zambia - even far they have an irregular yet widespread distribution in Zambia, beyond the effective sphere of political influence of Undi's kingdom.29 apart from the north-west of the country.35 Secondly, cults which the participants associate with deceased kins­ (b) Shrines primarily associated with chieftainship (relic men, local celebrities and lineage spirits are largely limited to the shrines, graves) and only secondarily with ecological func­ domestic level;3° whereas, for obvious reasons, the cult of deceased tions; they are controlled by chiefs, priests or grave-keepers, chiefs belongs to the interlocal level. Thirdly, there are few shrine and have a limited distribution. cults reported which unite, in their effective ritual activities and in (c) Shrines primarily associated with chieftainship (kingship) their ideological references, more than one tribe; those that do are terri­ but having major ecological connotations at the same time; torial cults associated either with land spirits31 or with the High God. controlled by chiefs, priests or grave-keepers, they have a Let us finally turn to the organizational side of shrine cults in limited distribution. Zambia. Usually there is a small minority of officiants as against a (d) Village and neighbourhood shrines, pertaining to a territo­ majority of participants or onlookers. Participation at the interlocal rial cult and controlled by Iitual leaders (in association with level (whether with ecological or with chiefly emphasis) tends to be mediums) and elders; though varying in physical features, this type of shrine seems to have a universal distribution. restricted to holders of office, and the cult tends to have specialist con­ trol by priests, chiefs or both in that the priests have to obtain the (e) Individual shrines, controlled by the individual concerned and associated with a particular (primarily ecological) skill; chief's permission to perform a ritual. Organization at the domestic although more data is needed, this type again seems to have level is more open and normally all members of the local community universal distribution. can participate, although women and children may be excluded; (£) Modern shrines, controlled by individuals or cross-cutting leadership, reflecting the general local authority structure, lies either sections of the community and associated with either cults of with the village headman, or with a ritual leader who may be the affliction or such universalist religions as Christianity, Islam custodian of the village or neighbourhood shrine and who sometimes and Hinduism; as a type, they have attained universal dis­ also practises other religious specialities such as divining. Well de­ tribution in contemporary Zambia. They fall outside the scribed for the Tonga,32 but probably also occurring elsewhere, is a scope of this chapter. division of labour between the secular ritual leader, responsible for the shrine and the performance of the shrine ritual, and the inspired me­ Despite the enormous gaps in our material, it is useful to attempt dium who is the mouthpiece of the invisible entities with whom com- to map out the geographical distribution of those types of shrine cults 52 53 ~ that do not have universal distribution. The result of such an exercise The typology and map presented in this sectiOn are only starting is Map2. points, suggestive of the enormous amount of research that yet has to I be undertaken. For the time being, they are nearly all the sohd data we \ ' have; even in their very imperfect form they shall have to guide us through the following sections of this essay.

0 200 400

ktlometres Shrines, Ecology and the Community The ecological perspectzve: Shrine cults in Zambia tend to have a strong ecological emphasis: they tend to be territorial cults. Therefore, let us set a framework within which this emphasis can be understood and appreciated as being of literally vital importance to the cultiva­ tors, cattle-keepers, fishermen and gatherers that for many centuries have made up Zambia's population. If there is one social science tradition which is, in more than one re­ spect, down-to-earth, it is the one exemplified by such eminent re­ searchers as Malinowski and Evans-Pritchard, who in their major works have attempted to describe non-industrial societies with empha­ sis on the dose and complex links between social organization and environment - the way in which man, with application of all his technical and organizational skill and intelligence, transforms his natural world so that it becomes liveable, human, and social. Studies of systems of cultivation or food preparation may not directly appeal to the student of religion, yet they deal with a primary concern from which the participants derive much of what gives their lives meaning and orientation, much of their symbolism and ritual. The process of ecological transformation of nature forms a major element in the reli­ gious system of any society with a subsistence economy. In order to © W van Bmsbergen 1977 really understand such a religion, we should perhaps accompany our informants to the fields, share their anxiety during a hunting expedi­ tion or even live through a minor famine with them . Nat1onal chtefly shnne cult wtth tmportant It is not by accident that the first truly modern sociological study of ecologtcal functtons MaJor pnestly shnne 0 a Zambian people (Audrey Richards's Land, Labour and Dzet) focuses

Chtefly shnne cult wtth secondary ecologtcal lndtcates the shrme to whtch a partiCUlar on ecology, but at the same time contains one of the most comprehen­ •~ functtons El regton belongs sive accounts of a Zambian religious system.

Information lackmg or dtffJcult to classtfy but Approxtmate boundary of the regton of a Natural and zndzvzdual shrznes zn the ecologzcal perspectzve: The probably chtefly shnne cult wtth secondary major pnestly shnne ecologJcat funct1ons B existence of natural, non-man-made shrines becomes more intelligible within the ecological perspective. In a subsistence economy the land­ To the north west of thts ltfe no evtdence of Chtefly shnne cult absent • tnterlocal pnestly shnne cults scape is never completely humanized - everywhere places remain 0 B whiCh have never been subjected to man's ecological transformations lnformatton lackmg or dtfftcult to classtfy but or which, once used, have been abandoned again. These places are of probably chtefly shnne cult absent B Present day mternat10nal boundary ?5 • Map 2 Terntorral Cults m Zamb1a great significance: they tend to represent the hidden forces on which Table II man draws for his survival but which, on the other hand, are only too prone to harm him. 'Wild' places play a prominent part in the reli­ SHRINE RITUAL AND gions of peoples engaged in a subsistence economy. In order to be­ EVERYDAY ECOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES COMPARED come true foci of religious activities, all that seems necessary is that these places be localized and somehow stand out among the other natural objects in the landscape. Hills, pools, imposing trees, caves, streams, falls and rapids become associated with invisible entities, and thus become objects of veneration. A similar argument will be used be­ Type of Actzvzty low to interpret man-made shrines. These natural objects are outside the cycle of ecological transforma­ (a) Dzrected to (b) Everyday Eco- tions and do not serve any direct utilitarian purpose for the people Man-made Ecolo- logzcal gzcal Shrznes concerned. The opposite is true for those aspects of the ecological pro­ cess that are too important and too uncertain to be left to chance. A Type of 6 sharply localized much more ex- clear example is hunting, which among several Zambian peoples3 has Area acquired mystical characteristics, including: great social and sexual small area tended area, not so Involved sharply bound as privileges; the development of numerous medicines to make the hunt the shrine successful (or meant for other purposes but derived from killed game); the veneration of mythical hunters; the frequent attribution of afflic­ The Activity no immediate ef- effect is 1m me- tion cases to deceased hunters; ritual hunts as part of the healing of Viewed as feet visible; the diately visible, uti- such affliction and as a divination technique in general; and finally Ecolofical activity only be- htarian, and inhe- the erection of hunters' shrines. Much of the same applies to such Trans ormation comes meaningful rently meaningful through a local other important operations as fishing, honey-collecting, iron-working because it satisfies theory of causa- physiological and doctoring (the latter is an 'ecological' operation in so far as it tion which ~ostu- needs and is inter- implies the selection and processing of raw natural material into medi­ lates invisib e en- pretable with cine). The individual shrines commonly associated with these speciali­ tities associated everyday expe- ties form, in a way, the beacons that mark these essential transforma­ with the shrine rience within the tions of nature. visible world. The shrine is a spot in the landscape where a concentration takes place of activities directed to invisible entities who are supposed to be capable of influencing the visible world in one way or another. Con­ centrating here on shrines with strong ecological connotations, the in­ fluence of these invisible entities is associated with ecological pro­ cesses, respectively with natural conditions for such processes. Now when we arrange the everyday ecological processes (planting, hunt­ ing, fishing, collecting firewood and other bush products, building a house, etc.) and the ecological shrine activities in one diagram, there­ sult is something like Table II. Like any socio-cultural complex, shrine activities (a) and the ecolo­ gical process (b) have a formal, if you wish symbolic structure of their own: the integrated configuration of concepts, objects and activities by which such a complex can be defined, recognized, understood and re- 56 57 produced, either by the participants or (analytically) by the observer. shrine might then perhaps be reconstructed as follows: 'If there is a I~ high chance (i.e., uncertainty, failure) element in the extended land­ 1 Table II summarizes the bare outlines of the formal structure of (a) I and (b) on the analytical level. Thus it brings out a very crucial point scape, let us isolate one small part of that very landscape, and perform about the relations between shrine activities and everyday ecological some (ritual) operations upon this small part which- through a pro­ I activities: their respective formal structures are largely symmetrical cess of transfer - will influence the (utilitarian) operations in the '( and complement one another as if forming one whole. Table II sug­ wider landscape so as to transform chance into fortune.' gests that the ecological shrine forms a unique complement - an This tentative formula sums up the very close intimacy between actional, symbolic and spatial counterpoint- to the everyday ecologi­ ecological shrine cult and the everyday ecological process. First, the cal activities. The ecological shrine is not a more or less accidental epi­ construction of the man-made shrine is a quasi-ecological process in phenomenon, grown upon the utilitarian ecological process. A much itself. Elements are selected from nature (such as a spot, poles, grass, or more intimate bond exists between the two: one is the mirror image of bark), transformed and arranged so as to meet a human purpose; the the other. whole 'idiom' of the undertaking is ecological, except that the result One might suggest that the unity of these two formal structures (the finished shrine) has no immediately utilitarian reward in terms of (clad with whatever their local cultural idiosyncrasies, in matters such physiological needs fulfilled. For instance, although in Zambia the as the actual construction of the shrine, the actual ritual, or the actual most common hut-like type of shrine is a model of the ordinary hu­ ecological activities) contains the clue for the almost universal distri­ man dwelling, the shrine hut does not primarily serve such utilitarian bution, not just in Central Africa, but on a world-wide basis, of man­ purposes as shelter and storage. The shrine derives its significance made ecological shrines in societies with subsistence economies. For from this dialectical combination of identity and difference vis-a-vis 'l such societies depend on primary ecological processes. Therefore, if it its non-ritual counterparts. Furthermore, once the ecological shrine can be made plausible that ritual focusing around man-made ecolo­ has been constructed the ritual activities there can be viewed as a gical shrines forms an obvious, intrinsic counterpart to these ecolo­ formal rhyme to everyday ecological activities, in that a part of the vis­ gical processes, then we have advanced a little towards understanding ible world is manipulated with ultimate reference to man's physiologi­ the ubiquity of such ritual. But unfortunately the only way to arrive at cal needs. But again, the ritual is only pseudo-ecological: contrary to some plausible explanations here is through an abstract thought expe­ ecological activities which require material objects such as tools, the r~n:ent, far removed from the explicitly conscious notions of any par­ means in ritual are immaterial (words, songs) or sham tools (like the tiCipants, and along the weak methodology of 'phenomenological' miniature wooden hoe and axe used in ritual in western and north­ interpretation. western Zambia), and the ritual has no perceptible, concrete, imme­ Man's everyday ecological activities in such societies have, among diate result. others, the following characteristics: they are inherently meaningful The ecological shrine is a model of the world-as-being-humanized, ~o the participant for they relate to his immediate physiological needs, a microcosm in which essentially the same entities which move the mvolve a large amount of chance, and are directed toward rather exten­ ecological macrocosm can be approached through a ritual reminiscent sive parts of the landscape, such as a garden plot or a hunting area. of, ·but different from everyday ecological activities, and thus (in ways But ritual needs a somewhat more defined and more localized focus that would not work outside the shrine situation) can be made to than a plot or a hunting area. One solution is the adoption of movable render the ecological conditions outside the shrine favourable for man. ritual ?bjects (such as amulets, medicine, or a royal bracelet), while an­ This formal analysis is abstracted from actual social and historical forms. The concrete shape of the ritual in ecological shrines can add a other IS the adoption of invisible entities with whom man can in prin­ ciple communicate anywhere; but even so, a material focus would be lot more colour to our picture; a multitude of invisible entities elbow convenient. Since everyday ecological activity is concentrated upon to catch our attention, and beautiful, archaic and wise rituals take our the landscape, the most obvious solution is to create a concentrated breath. However, if there is some general, formal structure underlying spot where ritual will have an effect upon the total ecological system this colourful surface (and the ubiquity of ecological shrine cults involved. strongly suggests that there is such a fairly uniform structure), then we The basic philosophy unconsciously underlying the ecological have to try to discern Its principles- even if blundering.37 58 59 The village shrine and its dual nature: The speculations developed so from the communal point of view, however, the obvious association is far may make the principle of a man-made ecological shrine plausible, with humans who have a direct and specific historical significance for but they need elaboration before they can hope to account for entire the local community: the village founder,40 some other deceased local ecological shrine cults, involving not just one individual hunter or celebrity, or lineage spirits in general. ironworker, but a full human community. This essentially dual nature of the village (or neighbourhood) We may generalize that people forming a small-scale community shrine has not been sufficiently analysed in Colson's studies, which (a village) in a subsistence economy are knit together by common nevertheless provide the best material on shrine cults so far available interests and activities which have a primarily, though by no means for Zambia. Colson has presented the shrines as primarily communal, exclusively, ecological reference. In the same way primarily ecological elaborating on their functions in local and interlocal social relations factors (in Zambia especially the level of minimal annual water but largely ignoring their ecological significance. Thus she leaves us supply38) seem to lead to the breaking up of su~h units and the subse­ in the dark as to why precisely rain shrines should perform these func­ quent founding of new units; although these factors often also mani­ tions in Tonga society.41 fest themselves on the social plane in local political conflict or witch­ Meanwhile, it should be borne in mind that the village shrine is craft ~ccusations. Dependent upon each other through the use of the not the only possible ·way to focus communal feelings and actions at same ecological field, confined by the force of distance and by the the village level. In a large part of Zambia a village is characterized by claims of surrounding communities, and through a division of labour the men's shelter at its centre, where most male social and communal where members of the small community exchange the fruits of their activities apart from economic ones are concentrated.42 Often the own efforts (such as food, toofs, or medicine) in this field as part-time shelter is located only a few metres from the village shrine.43 Although specialists, the villagers are primarily linked by a common concern in the unifying and rallying functions of the shelter the secular aspect with their environment. If, on the basis of more general principles I dominates, it reminds us of a shrine in that access to it is restricted have attempted to gauge, ecological concern tends to express itself in (women and children should not enter the shelter), and in that it is a the erection of ecological shrines, then the creation of ecological vil­ place for libation, since beer is served here. Thus, though the com­ lage shrines seems a logical step. One reason why village shrines are so munal and ecological references of shriqe and shelter merge to some widespread and prominent in Central Africa is probably that the ecolo­ extent, their double presence in a village can be viewed as a far from gical pressure is most keenly felt on the village level; again, Richards's strict dissociation between these two aspects, the shrine being primar­ pioneer study offers a marvellous example of this condition. ily ecological, the shelter primarily communal. But let us guard against economic or ecological determinism. The Central African village is an 'ecological' unit, but it is more. One of Interlocal shrines: On the interlocal level the shrine becomes the the crucial insights of the social sciences battling against various symbol of the effective political group, and particularly of its leader­ forms of reductionism39 has been that 'the social' creates forms of inter­ ship (headman, chief). From this viewpoint, irrespective even of ecolo­ action and of symbolism which must be studied in their own· Tight. gical implications, the erection of a communal shrine is a claim to Specifically, the village, however ephemeral and prone to disruption, autonomy as a social and political unit. 44 Along the same lines, re­ generates a sense of identity which is not just the sum of its internal moval of a shrine is a manifestation of migration; the decline of cer­ economic activities and division of labour, and which seeks a charter tain shrines and the rise of other shrines within the same geographical and a symbol in the social and ritual fi~ld, rather than in the ecologi­ area is a manifestation 6! shifts in group composition and political cal. The village shrine can and does serve as such a symbol. It thus per­ alignment;45 maintenance of relations with a distant shrine is an forms the dual function of being, at the same time, a focus in the ecolo­ admission of imperfect autonomy vis-a-vis the distant group asso­ gical process and a communal rallying point (both socially and ideolo­ ciated with that shrine;46 while for immigrants and invaders the gically) for the village members. destruction of pre-existing shrines is a meaningful way to destroy From the ecological viewpoint, the obvious invisible entities to be local religious power structures and to assert themselves as a new, associated with a village shrine should be such general beings as col­ socially and religiously superior groupY lective anonymous land spirits, culture heroes, and the High God; If shrines perform these essentially political functions, then we 60 61 expect political leaders (clan heads, headmen, chiefs) to associate reach only to the early nineteenth century. Moreover, despite its themselves with shrines as visible symbols of their political autonomy tremendous achievements in recent years, Zambian archaeology is by and of their legitimacy. Again, this association does not necessarily no means capable yet of depicting in some detail the political and reli­ imply an ecological function for these 'chiefly' shrines; the duality be­ gious features of the Zambian societies before the Luba expansion. tween communal and ecological function, so manifest at the village Yet a speculative model can be drawn. By extrapolation of recent level, could at the higher interlocal levels very well be dissociated to work on early Malawi and southern Tanzania, 48 we can postulate that r such an extent that different series of shrines specialize in either the some form of a shrine cult existed in eastern and northern Zambia at ecological or the communal-political function. Though in some Zam­ f least half a millenium ago. Some traditional evidence even suggests I bian cases (particularly the Bemba) royal shrines claim the monopoly that aspects of the Central African territorial cults have a pre-Bantu of both political and ecological power, chiefly shrines without elabo­ origin.49 Moreover, there is some evidence50 that peoples not unlike rate ecological functions are more the general rule (Map 2). In the lat­ the Tonga and Ila have occupied much of eastern, central and south­ ter case the chiefly shrines provide political legitimacy and the focus ern Zambia since the first centuries of the present millenium. Finally, for royal ritual, particularly in case of accession to office, since they there are indications that the chieftainships which, as part of the Luba contain royal attributes or the remains of deceased rulers. Ecological expansion since about 1500, were established in Zambia, were general­ functions are then primarily fulfilled by other shrine systems: shrines ly imposed upon peoples who had already been settled in their areas associated with priests in an interlocal cult, village shrines, and those for some time, and who had no centralized political system involving associated with individual specialists. Yet, if the ecological functions chiefs but instead a little-developed segmentary system of mutually of chiefly shrines are usually not elaborate, few if any totally lack feuding clans or clan segments. 51 ecological connotations. Chiefly cults tend to supplement, as a last re­ sort, the regular non-chiefly ecological cults in times of great crisis. This hints at a type of society consisting of small units of gather­ Ritual control over the land (exercised directly, or through supervi­ ers, husbandmen or shifting cultivators, with only an informal type of sion of interlocal ecological priests and ritual leaders) seems to pro­ secular leadership presumably based not so much on ascription as on vide the most adequate legitimation of political power exercised by the skilful manipulation of immediate economic and kinship relation­ chiefs. Thus the dual nature of the domestic shrine tends to have a ships during one's lifetime. Such political leadership is in itself hardly counterpart in the communal-political and, at the same time, ecolo­ capable of checking the structural tendency towards small-scale war­ gical functions of the chiefly shrine at the highest interlocallevels. fare over ecological resources, women, and honour; on the contrary, it We could leave it at this, and simply view the variety of chiefly, can be said to need violent conflict since this provides a setting in priestly, and village shrine cults with commt1;nal, ecological or com­ which the leader's service is most valuable. bined emphasis, as the timeless manifestations of the fundamental Much of social anthropology in the l930s-l950s was concerned duality of the shrine above the individual level. There is, however, a with this type of society;52 the notions of segmentation, complemen­ much more attractive though ill-documented alternative on which we tary opposition and unilineal descent groups were primarily con­ shall elaborate below: the interpretation of the variety of shrine cults ceived and tested in the analysis of such societies as the Nuer, Tallensi, as the outcome of a historical process, in which shrines and the ecolo­ Alur and Somali. In retrospect much of this work remains too faithful gical claims associated with them have been manipulated in a pro­ to neat armchair models and diagrams. Deeper insights into the actual longed contest over power and legitimacy - a contest between secular complex mechanisms of feuding, complementary opposition, recon­ immigrant rulers and earlier territorial priests. ciliation, and into the acephalous political order in general, were mainly obtained from those areas where the classical segmentation model, after initial trials, turned out not to fit properly. Such areas are Chiefs and Shrines in Zambia's History North Africa,53 New Guinea, 54 and particularly Central Africa, where Zambtan societies before the Luba expansion: Zambia's early history the absence of real segmentary lineages was realized many years ago55 is still very dim. Oral traditions do not normally penetrate deeper than and where some of the most brilliant work of the Rhodes-Livingstone the sixteenth or seventeenth century; in the Tonga case they are said to Institute researchers (even where conducted in societies with formal 62 63 chieftainship) provided new models for the interpretation of this type dialectical nature of the shrine. It is a symbol of the local group, and 56 of society. as such it is charged, much in the vein of the classic analysis of Durk­ In the older studies the essential process of arbitration in acepha­ heim,65 with the authorit.y that the group exercises over its members as lous societies was mainly presented as lying in the hands of informal basis and source of legitimacy for the normative system. At the same secular authorities. It is only in the last few years that North Mrican time the shrine is a symbol of the ecological processes upon which de­ studies have begun to yield a new, probably widely applicable, model pends the very life of the community and of its individual members - of the way in which religious authorities within a shrine cult can be­ processes which are supposed to be negatively influenced, again, if the come a central element of social control in an acephalous society. In members misbehave with regard to the natural order (disrespectful use rural Nm th Africa, pacifist priestly lineages administered widely dis­ of natural resources), the social order (murder, incest, sorcery), or the persed shrines amid secular groups engaged in constant feuding. By shrine itself. An additional factor is that the social positions (priest, virtue of their religious status, the supernatural sanctions surround­ medium) in which the territorial cult invests authority, often devolve ing them, their backing from third secular groups, and the general re­ on people who, through birth or way of life, tend to be outsiders (and cognition of their indispensability to all the feuding parties involved, therefore potential arbiters) to the general process of secular social life. these shrine keepers ('saints') could successfully operate as judges and The Tonga, Ila and Korekore territorial cults promote social con­ arbiters in feuds, meanwhile accumulating impressive wealth from trol in contemporary societies that have diffuse and limited polit~cal donations and their protection of trade.57 leadership. Thus the territorial cqlt in general may form an alterna­ In the absence of concrete data I cannot suggest that shrine cults in tive to highly developed chieftainship; where chieftainship is limited pre-Luba Zambia have performed a similar function. Yet if the later or incipient, it can be supplemented or antagonized by the political forms of the Tonga and Ila social systems can to some extent be extra­ functions of the territorial cult; we can even postulate that the territo­ polated back into time, some very interesting insights emerge. rial cult is capable of creating a rudimentary form of social control in The closest resemblance to the North African model is found situations where specialized secular political organization is alto­ among the Ila,58 where priestly custodians of the shrines (groves) of gether absent. such major land spirits as Shimunenga and Munyama are reported to receive compensation in cattle in case of murder in the local commu­ If we accept that the Zambian societies before the Luba expansion nity. Moreover, these groves served as neutral meeting grounds where were either acephalous or had only limited and incipient·forms of emissaries from other areas could solicit the local community's assis­ chieftainship, then we can assume that priestly territorial cults played tance in war.59 Compensatory payments to the shrine's ritual leader an important role in the maintenance of some social and political existed also among the Gwembe Tonga60 and remained effective up to order beyond the village level. the first decades of this century. Although Colson feels compelled to From about 1500 onward, this type of society was exposed to bands deny the ritual leaders all political and judicial significance and men­ of immigrants who brought different conceptions of social control: a tions the territorial cult only once in her famous work on Tonga new political culture, focusing on the exalted position of the chief or social control, 61 yet she claims in her rain shrine paper that the shrine king.66 Hitherto this political revolution in Zambia has been pre­ cult is 'still the fundamental element in Tonga social structure' 62 and sented in two versions: as the imposition (through force, but equally that it creates a small community within which the rudiments of com­ through persuasion) of a political order where previously there had munity law can be discerned and which forces its members to remem­ been virtually none;67 or as the replacement of a rudimentary secular ber occasionally that they belong to a wider unit than the village or political order by a more developed and centralized one.68 Both views 6 kin-group. 3 Similarly, mediums among the neighbouring Valley ignore the possibility of a pre-existing politico-religious order based 64 Korekore are described by Garbett as playing a major role in the on the territorial cult. A third view emerges which presents the Luba settlement of disputes, both at the domestic village level and in chiefly expansion as, among other aspects, a battle against the religiously­ succession. anchored political power invested in the territorial cult. Thus in the recent Zambian context the territorial cult could form If there is some truth in this hypothesis, it should enable us tore­ a major source of social control. This potential is given in the dual, interpret this political expansion process in Zambia, and moreover to 64 65 throw some light on evidence not yet explicitly accounted for in the such as divining by producing a fish in a basket - in an area where literature. This will be the theme of the remainder of this section. much of the ecological ritual is in fact concerned with fishing.72 He may be considered as a symbol of the 'ecological' powers, and of the The confrontatzon between zmmzgrant chiefs and earlzer territorzal territorial cult that deals with them, upon whose agreement and co­ cults zn Bemba hzstory: Let us first consider the evidence for a reli­ operation political success depends.73 gious dimension to Luba expansion in the case of one Zambian king­ These general mythical themes therefore provide some slight evi­ dom: the Bemba. Some mythical evidence is contained in the tradition dence for my hypothesis. Fortunately the religious aspects of early about the filial conflict which drove Nkole and Chiti away from their Bemba history have recently been subjected to careful study by homeland to establish the Bemba kingdom: Wemer.74 On the basis of other evidence he arrives at conclusions ra­ as a result of some project69 of Chiti and Nkole, people were ther similar to mine. killed and Mukulumpe made his sons do menial punishments, Mainly on the basis of the occurrence of priest-councillors from such as sweeping the royal yard. When further tasks of cleanzng clans that otherwise have no political significance in the Bemba poli­ the shrznes were given, Chiti refused and his men killed the men 5 70 tical structure/ Werner postulates that when the bena ngandu rpyal his father sent to beat him. They and their people then left .... clan of the Bemba developed its ancestral cult into a national chiefly The mythical accounts of the brothers' further exploits contain at cult, it had to accommodate earlier chiefs within its religious struc­ least two other hints at what could have been a religious dimension: ture. These chiefs, Werner claims on Roberts's authority,76 did not be­ their repeated encounters with the friendly white-skinned nganga, Lu­ long to the royal clan but they largely shared the general Bemba cul­ chele, on whose intervention and favourable divination their entry ture. They are said to represent an immigrant majority that reached into Bembaland ultimately depended, and the hitting of a tree with a Bembaland not long before the bena ngandu themselves. spear when finally taking possession of the territory. It is important that the latter two mythical themes are not confined The religious powers which these men exerted as the ritual to Bemba tradition but have a wide distribution among the Luba-ized leaders of their small territories were . . . incorporated into a 71 much larger system in which the ancestral spirit of the bena peoples of Central Africa. This means that if these themes can be ngandu chief became the ritual focus of the territory .... Reli­ taken as manifestations of the hypothetical conflict between immigrat­ gious powers of earlier chiefs were eclipsed .... The ancestors of ing chiefs and the earlier territorial cult, this conflict might be postu­ previous chiefs were forgotten . . . . It would appear that as lated among these other peoples, although of course we have to con­ earlier chiefs were assimilated by the Chitimukulu dynasty, the political leadership which preceded bena ngandu rule . . . was sider the possibility of myths being diffused irrespective of the histori­ undermined and the ritual powers held by the previous chiefs cal events to which the myths originally referred. were transferred from their own group affiliations to those of the Interpretation of the three themes in terms of my hypothesis does bena ngandu. 77 not seem too far fetched. The religious content is clearest in the shrine­ cleaning episode; the myth contains evidence of some religious con­ Werner clearly recognizes that the Luba expansion had religious flict in the very beginning of Bemba expansion - although it might aspects in addition to the salient political aspects; to consolidate and be argued that the myth in the version given here should be inter­ legitimize the immigrant dynasty, a royal cult had to be developed that preted as an attempt to assert politico-religious independence by rejec­ could compete with, encapsulate, and so accommodate, earlier tion of the parental groups' shrines, rather than as evidence of conflict politico-religious authorities. Yet there are gaps in Werner's argu­ between the royal immigrants and a local shrine cult in Bembaland. ment, particularly when it comes to identifying these earlier authori­ The tree, in the second theme, is the very prototype of a natural shrine ties. If the 'chiefs' who were to be caught in the bena ngandu political in Zambia, and hitting a tree shrine with a spear is a very audacious and ritual structure were essentially newcomers, still trying to consoli­ challenge; hence this theme could be interpreted as the memory of a date themselves politically, how could they already claim the interlo­ spectacular challenge to earlier territorial cults by the immigrants. cal ritual control over the land that is the prerogative of 'original' in­ Finally, although the character of Luchele remains dim, as a specialist habitants? What real evidence is there that these earlier 'chiefs' in fact in religious matters he has unmistakably 'ecological' connotations, combined secular-political and religious functions? And, supposed 66 67 they combined both functions, why should they have entered the bena sistency. On the one hand he claimed (with particular reference to the ngandu structure as priest-councillors, rather than as tributary secular Zambian chiefs outside the great dynasties of Lozi, Bemba, Ngoni, chiefs - in other words, why should they have been deprived of their Undi and .Kazembe) that secular rather than of their ritual connotations? Werner would prob­ in much of Northern Rhodesia, the present state of social anthro­ ably agree that the creation of a unitary ritual system controlled by the pological and sociological knowledge suggests that perhaps bena ngandu was as essential a concern of the immigrant dynasty as there never has been a ritual or spiritual life surrounding chief­ the creation of a unitary political system; depriving politico-religious tainship and related institutions to the same great extent which was ... characteristic of some other parts of Bantu-speaking authorities of their ritual connotations could be one way to achieve Africa.80 such a unitary ritual system. It seems that Werner's argument stagnates in his use of an ill­ On the other hand he largely failed \O give concrete evidence as to the defined and ill-analysed concept of 'chief'. We cannot blame him, relative absence of a ritual role for the minor chiefs. Moreover, his own since 'chief' is the most frequently used concept in African history and study of the Nsengasi elaborates precisely on the spiritual basis of political sociology. Yet if we continue to apply this word to any type Nsenga (minor) chieftainship: the chief's relic shrine. of traditional authority without analysing in as much detail as pos­ Yet Apthorpe points out a very weak spot in Central African sible the political, religious and economic components of this autho­ studies. The variety of types of authority should not be concealed by rity - if we continue to assume that these components, throughout calling them all 'chiefs', and assuming that under this general label Zambian history, always tend to coincide- then we cannot hope for the different types will automatically merge. I shrink from developing progress in our analysis and understanding. Therefore, what is a chief? here all the permutations of formal authority in traditional Zambian Linguistic evidence does not help us very much here. The Bemba societies; and in fact, the term 'chief' is so inveterate that trying to word 'mfumu' has the following equivalents in English: political avoid it altogether would amount to spasmodic artificiality. Let me authorities ranging from 'king', via 'senior chief', 'chief', 'senior head­ merely suggest that we need at least three crude basic categories: man' to the lowest level of 'village headman'; 'owners of the land' or 'land priests' with ritual rather than political connotations; and final­ (a) The ruler, who specializes in.politics: the manipulation of 78 power relationships in the process of the social allocation of ly, invisible entities associated with shrines and territorial ritual, scarce goods (land, labour, food, trade commodities, women). entities that may be traceable in local tradition as spirits of deceased (b) The priest, who specializes in religion: the manipulation of political authorities, but that often lack such historical political con­ relationships with invisible entities, as relevant to such mat­ notations and then are better described as 'anonymous land spirits' or ters as ecology and legitimation of political structures. perhaps 'saints'. This only suggests that, on the participants' level, (c) The ruler-priest, who more or less equally combines the there is evidence of a general conceptual system in which little differ­ above specialities and who may well be as rare, on the Zam­ entiation is made between spiritual authority, secular authority, and bian scene, as Apthorpe suggests. t manifestations of invisible entities with ecological relevance. Such an insight is important for us, but it is not enough. We are not just inter­ These tentative definitions do not imply the absence of secondary I ested in how the participants see their society- their views form only ritual functions for the ruler or of secondary political functions (such [ one of the entries through which we hope to approach the historical as arbitration) for the priest. They only claim that it is useful to dis­ ' and sociological reality, including its more objective aspects. In the tinguish between two institutional frameworks that are analytically last analysis we have to forge and define our own scientific terms with (though perhaps not in the perception of the participants) disparate greater precision than the participants need or can even afford. and not mutually reducible. Let me finally emphasize that the defini­ It is remarkable that the only serious criticism of the indiscrimi­ tions do not specify a level or scale for the authority that is exercised: nate use of the concept of 'chief' for academic and administrative pur­ in principle, they apply to the domestic as well as to the inter-tribal poses in relation to Zambia came as late as 196079 - and that level. Apthorpe, with this attack on what he called 'mythical political struc­ We can go back now to Werner's reconstruction of early Bemba his­ tures', met with so liule response. His own argument lacked some con- tory. The crucial question is: to what type of pre-bena ngandu histori- 68 69 cal authority (if any) does the institution of non-royal Bemba authori­ A significant demonstration of the same, as yet hypothetical, prin­ ties refer{ If Werner's answer is somehow unsatisfactory, for the rea­ ciple is the case of Shimwalule, the most senior non-royal Bemba sons outlined above, what tentative alternative can we discern? authority, who buries the Chitimukulu and who has importa~t 'ecolo­ The bena ngandu came late in the process of Luba expansion. The gical' functions. There are indications that the ~wa~ule bunal grove society upon which they tried to impose their domination mainly con­ at the southern periphery of Bembaland was a tern tonal cult centre be­ sisted of similar groups of earlier Luba immigrants, and the latter had fore the bena ngandu came to be buried there, and tradition claims already been involved for some time in a process of religious and poli­ that it was again Luchele who arranged the relationship between the tical accommodation with the 'original', pre-Luba population. bena ngandu and the Bisa priests of this shrine. 83 Above, I postulated that pre-Luba society did have priests, but prob­ What we gain from this argument is not only a modification of ably lacked formal rulers; political functions may have been exerted by Werner's reconstruction, but also an insight that may have more gene­ informal, non-ascriptive leaders on clan or sub-clan level, or, failing ral applicability to the Luba expansion into Zambia - the hypothesis even these, may have been· in the hands of priestly arbitrators - with­ that 'owners of the land' may not only or primarily have defeated out these priests being 'ruler-priests' exercising genuine political con­ earlier 'chiefs', but have encapsulated earlier territorial priests. trol. There is some fragmentary traditional evidence of a pre-Bemba priesthood, associated with such prominent natural shrines as the Chi­ A comparative overvtew of the confrontation between rulers. and te~rz­ simba Falls near Kasama.82 The earlier Luba immigrants, preceding torial cults in Zambian history: We can now try to generalize the m­ the bena ngandu, began to build up ruler status - but they could not sights derived from our review of early Bemba history. From the six­ effectively claim ritual power over the land, and thus had no easy teenth century onward, Zambian societies were invaded by groups access, for the time being, to priestly status. Yet, in accordance with aspiring to establish themselves as rulers. The immigrants. f~:mnd my general hypothesis, they may have started already to boost their themselves in a situation where they did not command legmmate ancestral rituals in rivalry with the pre-Luba territorial cult. Pre-Luba authority. Their conception of politics, however, required that their priests, perhaps deprived of their political functions of arbitration, leadership, won as it might have been through small-scale conquest or would continue to act as territorial priests. Those previously eligible opportunist submission by local peoples, become suppo~t.ed as soo~ as for the rudimentary pre-Luba secular political leadership (if it existed possible by a structure of political relati~n~, and. pohucal-mythi~l at all) could now try to penetrate the Luba ranks, or alternatively concepts and ritual, which would have legitimacy m the eyes of then could play off their status of original inhabitants and seek an outlet in newly acquired subjects. This attempt at legitimation brought them the assumption of priestly functions as well. While still in a nascent into conflict with pre-existing foci of legitimated social co.ntro.l - the state, this Luba-izing political system was then invaded by the bena priestly territorial cults in their political fu?ctions of arbi~rauon and ngandu. What interest would the latter have had in ritually formaliz­ interlocal communication. Within the social and ecological frame­ ing their relationship with their kindred earlier Luba immigrants, by work explored above, the most obvious source of legiti~acy must h~ve making them priest-councillors? The similarity in culture and origin consisted of ritual relations with the extended land territory and With and the relatively short stay of the earlier immigrants in the area did the ecological process - a form of religious power. ne~comers could not justify such a move. The interests of the bena ngandu were clearly not automatically claim. So the best strategy for the Immigrants ~a~ to with the pre-Luba priests, for these possessed the key to ultimate legiti­ claim ecologital powers rivalling those of the priests but denvmg macy: ritual control over extended land areas. If the existence of non­ from a new principle. One way to achieve this appears to have been royal Bemba authorities is the precipitation of an early conflict in the claim, by the immigrants, of having their own direct access to bena ngandu history, my argument suggests that this conflict con­ what is the principal concern of the territorial cults: rain. De.sce~.t sisted in the encapsulation of pre-Luba territorial priests into the bena from 'Rain', or from the High God mainly associated with ra~n, IS ngandu system. Presumably the priest-councillors were not 'chiefs' claimed by, for example, the royal lineages of Lozi, Luchazi and (that is, rulers or at most ruler-priests) deprived of their political func­ Nkoya.s4 The general solution for the immigrants, .howe~er, '_Vas ~o tions, but priests whose religious frame of reference was successfully create a type of shrine which, while associated with chteftam~hlp redefined by the immigrants, and politicized. (chiefly relics and graves) and effectively controlled by the chiefly 70 71 group, yet could claim to have an ecological impact comparable to grants could establish themselves precisely because they could satisfy that of the earlier priestly cult. this need.87 It should be noted that such a strategy, whether taken deliberately Whatever the intricacies of the religious history of north-western or followed unconsciously by the actors, need not have been so revolu­ Zambia, it is a firm fact that elsewhere in Zambia most immigrant tionary as may be suggested by my presentation here. In view of the chiefs have developed some form of a royal shrine cult with (though in universality of village shrines in Central Africa, we can safely claim general only secondary) ecological connotations. Certainly the Bemba that on the domestic level all aspiring rulers were in fact associated formed the most successful case. Here the cult of royal relic shrines, de­ from the very beginning with communal shrines that, by virtue of tI ceased chiefs' capitals and chiefs' burial groves, administered by here­ theu dual nature, had ecological connotations - but on a very small ditary priests under control of the royal clan, attained a high complex­ geographical scale. The religious rivalry with earlier interlocal territo­ ity and effectively claimed major ecological significance.88 In the rial cults simply required an enlargement of scale of these domestic Bemba case the distinction, so characteristic of Zambian pre-colonial shrine cults associated with the aspiring rulers - rather than the in­ political systems, between original owners of the land and later chiefly vention of a completely new type of interlocal ecological royal shrine. immigrants has been largely obliterated: the royal clan became the As was suggested by Werner for the bena ngandu, the development of owners. Yet the continued existence of territorial shrines outside direct royal territorial cults lay within the potential of the general domestic chiefly control, the occurrence of non-Bemba priests (of Lungu and territorial cult. Bisa extraction, and including Shimwalule),89 and possession by pre­ If the confrontation between immigrant chiefs and earlier inter­ sumably pre-Luba culture heroes and anonymous collective land local territorial cults did in fact take the course suggested above, then spirits- the 'people's religion' in this strongly hierarchical society­ the typology and distribution of types of shrine cults as discussed in all this suggests that even among the Bemba the chiefs' hold on reli­ the first section must be interpretable in terms of this confrontation. I gious power was uneasy and likely to be shaken by thorough crises, shall now attempt such an interpretation. such as those that occurred in this century and the last.90 Further research will have to reveal to what extent chiefly shrines Considerably less monolithic was the :r:esult in two other, not dissi­ formed a local adaptation of the immigrants facing the challenge of milar great kingdoms: Undi's and that of the Lozi. In both cases the an indigenous territorial cult, or rather, reflected the diffusion of a immigrant royal lineages established themselves as the unchallenged trait already existing in the Luba and Lunda homelands. There is no owners of the land, and a cult of royal graves was developed which in­ doubt that the notion of the chief or king having supernatural powers cluded claims of ecological power. Yet in both cases the ecological over the land belonged to the original Lunda political culture, but functions of the paramount were limited; these functions - signifi­ these powers seem to have been vested in movable attributes (particu­ cantly associated with royal burial and succession, that is, where larly the royal bracelet of human penises) rather than in shrines. ss chiefly shrines as foci of political legitimation are particularly rele­ In this light it is significant that the chiefs of the north-western vant- mainly resided with groups which (though official ideology part of Zambia have retained the original attributes. As we have seen, tended to underplay or ignore this fact) could be regarded as previous this part of Zambia is exceptional in that no evidence of a non-chiefly owners of the land: in the Lozi case the commoner (predominantly territorial cult above the individual and village level has been record­ Mbunda?) priests, in the Chewa case the Banda clan that administered 91 ed. 86 If we extrapolate that in effect no interlocal territorial cult of the the priestly territorial cult headed by Makewana. type postulated for pre-Lunda Zambian societies existed in the north­ The Lozi-Undi pattern is further developed to a unique form in ,, west, then the strong suggestion emerges that a chiefly territorial cult the Eastern Lunda kingdom of Kazembe. Here the relationship be­ 'I was particularly developed in those parts of Zambia where the immi­ tween pre-Lunda owners of the land and the Lunda immigrants is ex­ 'I grants met with a strong challenge from a pre-existing priestly cult. If plicitly recognized and forms the very basis of much of the political, I pre-Lunda north-western Zambia lacked both rulers and interlocal ecological and religious system. Cunnison describes this in terms that I territorial cults, there would have existed a need for an outsider arbi­ again fit my general hypothesis (of a confrontation between chiefs and trating institution; and the literature emphasizes that the Lunda immi- earlier territorial priests) remarkably well: 72 73 The ancestral ritual of the Owners of the Land is generally rial cult at the domestic level, or must we interpret it as a chiefly ecolo­ spoken of as having been the most important ritual in the old Ii gical cult? Much will depend on the degree of participation of repre­ days. When the Lunda came, prayer to dead Kazembes was also made, not regularly but in case of drought or special hardship. t sentatives from other parts of the minor ruler's territory, but even so In addition . . . on such occasions Kazembe would call the l the distinction seems artificial. Owners of the Land to his capital and tell them that since the I In general, the relations between priestly interlocal cults and rulers country was in a bad way it was fitting that they should all go to 1 outside the few great royal dynasties remains a point for further study. their homes and pray to their ancestors on a certain day. Ka­ Detailed information on this point is available only for the extreme zembe would also order other sorts of ritual to be carried out 95 generally, for the good of the country.92 f north94 and for the Lake Bangweulu area. It is perhaps significant that in both cases an inter-tribal priestly territorial cult was revealed, But on the latter occasions he would work through the village head­ l which maintained a relative independence from the local political men and not rely on any supernatural power he or his ancestors them­ leadership. selves might claim. In addition to the owners of the land, Kazembe would keep up a respectful contact with three important ecological The no-man's land situation and the Tonga-Ila case: Vansina has shrines controlled by priests, one of whom, Mwepya, was recognized identified a factor that might be of primary significance for our under­ as an owner of the land. The most important of these shrines was the standing of the Central Zambian territorial cults. 'Kingdoms of the sa­ Aushi shrine, Makumba, that was originally destroyed by the Lunda vanna' were not bureaucratically centralized, but each imposed upon invaders but later restored.93 Though Kazembe could theoretically an extended geographical area a network of ideological identification assert himself as the ultimate owner of the land since he defeated the with the ruler, of tributed relationships, trade, emissaries and military previous 'owner', the legitimacy of his kingship derived not from a operations which became less and less dense towards the periphery­ direct ritual relationship between king and land but rather from a so that between adjacent kingdoms large areas of relative no-man's symbiosis between king and owners of the land, in which the latter land would remain.96 In these marches, successful large kingdoms enjoyed prestige and protection while paying tribute in recognition of could only rise if the distance, both geographically and inter­ the exalted political status of the king and his representatives. Ka­ actionally, to any already existing kingdom, was great enough (the zembe's is a rich country which became the most prosperous and case of Kazembe of the Lualaba),97 or if any existing kingdom col­ powerful of the Luba-Lunda empires. Management of these natural re­ lapsed so that its place could be taken. In the centuries immediately sources required a balanced, harmonious relationship between king preceding the colonial era most of Central Zambia, with extensions to­ and owners of the land. The initial conflict between Lunda invaders wards the northwest, south and north, exhibited this ambivalent state and local territorial cults (manifest in the Makumba tradition) dis­ of affairs: being too far away to be firmly controlled by the great king­ solved into a situation where Lunda political supremacy was unchal­ doms (Lozi, Mwaat Yaav, Kazembe, Bemba, Undi, Mutapa, Rozwi), lenged while the Lunda on their part acknowledged the religious but lying too near to produce locally another kingdom of similar supremacy of the older cults. dimensions out of the exploits of a large number of immigrant minor On a smaller scale, chiefly relic shrines and graves with ecological rulers. The external check on these minor rulers' powers must have connotations can be found in most of Central Zambia (Map 2). We can had repercussions upon their dealings with the territorial cult com­ agree with Apthorpe that in most cases these minor chiefs' role in plex wherever it existed. While unable to expand maximally on the ecological ritual is modest, and below I shall present a tentative histo­ political plane, these rulers tended to adopt, or at least further deve­ rical explanation of this fact. My Nkoya material reveals an amU.ytical lop, a religious consolidation (on the lines of a chiefly shrine cult), but difficulty in the case of these minor rulers. Among other functions, they were never able to claim such ritual power over the land as did the their status is that of headman of the chiefly village and neighbour­ great kings, particularly in the Bemba case. Brelsford's statement on hood; the village or neighbourhood shrine, possessing ecological con­ the Bemba chiefs seems to be a more generally applicable: 'Association notations, coincides with the chiefly relic shrine or chiefly graves. [between ruler and ecological powers] was only permanent when it While officiating at this chiefly village shrine, must we interpret the was backed by political control of the land. '98 minor ruler's religious activities as merely a slightly glorified territo- Though illuminating, the notion of the relative no-man's land is 74 75 insufficient to explain the complex case of territorial cults, chieftain­ tively chosen from a rather large pool of candidates. This is exactly the ship and absence of Luba-ization among the Ila and Tonga. One ele­ ! kind of political leadership described for the neighbouring Ila, 104 who ment in our predicament here is the almost complete lack of data on are very similar to the Tonga in language, economy, and general cul­ the western Tonga groups that have of old belonged to the Lozi king­ f tural orientation, including religion. The presumably recent differ­ dom. Another element is the nature of the writings of the main student ence in political organization between Ila and Tonga seems then of Tonga society, Elisabeth Colson, whose ahistorical emphasis on I mainly due to differences in local experiences and response of a basi­ contemporary social structure has so far failed to present a convincing cally similar political system during the upheaval in the nineteenth picture of Tonga chieftainship - beyond the hardly substantiated 1 century. assertion that in the past the Tonga had no chiefs.99 A thorough histo­ I I shall now explore the implications of such a view for the theme rical study of Tonga society is urgently needed. In view of the large I of this section: the confrontation between immigrant rulers and terri­ amount of research into Tonga history currently being undertaken by ~ torial cults in the process of Luba expansion. Luba-ization did not a number of scholars, it can be expected that before long we shall be successfully penetrate into the Tonga-Ila area. The chieftaincies in able to base a discussion of pre-colonial Tonga history on sound data. I southern Zambia have no recorded tradition of immigration from the Meanwhile we have to limit ourselves to speculation based on very north and also lack the material attributes (ceremonial ironware: fragmentary evidence. gongs, axes, bow-stands) generally associated with northern chiefly In the last century Tonga society was decimated and brought to origins.105 The particular type of chieftainship postulated here for the political collapse by the effects of Ndebele and Kololo raids, which entire Tonga-Ila group was very different from the Luba political cul­ even seem to have wiped out much of the oral tradition of the area. Ab­ t' ture, since it denied the ruler a socially and ritually exalted position. sence of Tonga rulers at this stage would not prove anything as to pre­ Moreover, among the Ila and the Tonga interlocal territorial cults vious periods. But is it at all true that Tonga rulers did not exist in the under priestly control have been very prominent and have fulfilled nineteenth century? The evidence of David Livingstone on Monze and major functions of social control and interlocal interaction; we have other Tonga (or Toka) chiefs, 100 the impressive funerary customs re­ identified these functions as an alternative to well-developed chieftain­ served for those whom early twentieth-century writers chose to call ship along Luba lines. While southern Zambia has been overtaken by chiefs, 101 and the fact that Tonga use the term 'chief' for many of the most other parts of the territory as far as material culture is concerned land spirits associated with their territorial shrinesi02 strongly suggests (pottery, iron technology),106 it has a relatively high agricultural po­ that O>lson's contention of Tonga chieftainship as a colonial creation tential.107 The area has remained occupied by the same civilization is untenable. She herself reports, for the Upper River Tonga, modem since the beginning of the present millenium.I08 It was the first part of chiefly families that are known by the ancient term of 'bana kokalia' Zambia to develop long-distance trade109 - and this trade, not mono­ ('nobles' or 'people of the shrine') - which could hardly be a colonial polized by chiefs as was the case in other parts of Zambia, was of re­ innovation.I03 markable dimensions even in the turbulent nineteenth century.110 Tonga colonial chieftainship appears therefore a restoration and The obvious question is: what kept the northern immigrants out partial re-interpretation of a much earlier pattern. That yet the Tonga of this attractive area? Distance cannot have been a factor, since some as described by O>lson display a normative system that, with its effectively Luba-ized parts of Zambia, such as the lands of the Nkoya, emphasis on diffuse leadership and achieved status, seems particularly Lenje and Soli, are hardly less distant from the Northern homelands. appropriate for a chief-less society need not surprise us. Rather than In fact, one ~uba ruler managed to establish himself at the southern assuming that this normative system is of entirely modem origin periphery of the area: Mukuni Q{ the Leya, east of Livingstone.m (which Colson does not suggest), we could link it meaningfully to a Doubtless there have been many other immigrant groups, but they particular type of historical political system: one where the ruler, were either assimilated without retaining their own identity, let alone though exercising political functions, is considered a primus inter assuming hereditary ruler status, 112 or they were violently repelled, as pares; not ritually separated from his subjects, and recruited not tradition has it for one branch of the Kaonde venturing south of the according to fixed kinship rules (which could safeguard the political Kafue. 113 monopoly of a particular lineage, dan or estate) but instead is collec- Traditions surrounding the origins of the major land spirits of the 76 77 Ila may give us the key to an answer. 114 Among the Ila each chief's area but also by long-distance trade and by the specific nature .of a cattle has Its sacred grove where a major land spirit is venerated. There is economy (which offers the unique possibility of accumulatmg wealth some hierarchy to these major land spirits: those at the bottom being in a subsistence economy), and a balanced relationship between these only venerated in one particular area, whereas those at the very top of rulers and an interlocal territorial cult system that, while providing the scale (Shimunenga, Munyama and especially Malumbe) are each additional political integration and arbitration, was perhaps more venerated in the groves of a number of neighbouring areas. In fact, the highly developed than anywhere else in Zambia because of the uncom- . 1· 111 three spirits named here are the main powers in the Ila pantheon after monly unpredictable nature of the southern lamb tan c tmate. the High God and the Earth Spirit, Bulongo. Tradition presents these three land spirits as historical human beings who arrived in Ilaland as great chiefs and magicians. Munyama is explicitly remembered as Conclusion leadmg a Lunda expedition into the area, whereas Malumbe is said to I have suggested that the Luba-Lunda revolution .represen~s one m~jor have come from the far east. Although these immigrant rulers may theme in the historical study of territorial cults m Zambia. Ortamly have made some impact on the Ila political structure (Smith and another such theme concerns the changes territorial cults have under­ Dale115 suggest that the areas they conquered coincide with the areas gone in the general process of rapid social change that has c~aracteHz­ in which they are now venerated), they were not able to found chiefly ed Central Africa since the first half of the last century; thts theme I dynasties alien to the flexible, open and non-ascriptive nature of Ila have pursued elsewhere. 118 chieftainship. In other words, though impressive enough in their ~e main purpose of this essay has been to develop a number of time, they failed to Luba-ize the Ila but instead were Ila-ized: they were hypotheses, which, though as yet untested, seem to me~t the fragme~­ accommodated within the already existing politico-religious structure tary and shallow factual data that we have on the soctology and his­ which encapsulated them and turned them into major local divinities. tory of the territorial cult in Zambia, and to collate these hypotheses Here we find the exact opposite of what happened in the Bemba case; tentatively into a plausible but conjectural histori~l process: It could among the Ila the struggle between, on the one hand, the immigrant be argued that a similar methodology is followed m most, tf not all, rulers and, on the other, the priests in association with non-ascriptive sociological and historical interpretation; however, in the present case rulers without religious connotations, ended in an absolute victory on the imbalance between speculation and data is exceptionally great .. the homeside. The immigrants were redefined in a way that was harm­ The only justification I can offer derives fro~ an ?bservauo?" less for the earlier political system and that could only boost the earlier which I believe I share with many of my colleagues m the held of Afn­ religious system. The ironical fate of the immigrant chiefs in Ilaland can sociology and history. Generally there is n? de~r_th of e~pirical is rather reminiscent of the fate of the agents of formal Islam who have data, and more is being collected by African umversmes and mtern~­ spread over rural North Africa since the twelfth century: gone out to tional research institutions, normally with the warm support of Mr~­ propagate the true Islamic doctrine (d. the Luba political culture) can Governments. In view of the enormous expansion of our histor~­ they rapidly became encapsulated in the earlier rural religious system cal knowledge of Ontral Africa during the last fifteen years I am confi­ and ended up as local saints, the very cornerstones of the popular reli­ dent that within a few years the major factual gaps in this study of the gion which they had tried to alter.ll6 territorial cult iu Zambia can be filled. However, in order to achieve Thus one is brought to assume that northern rulers, so successful this it is absolutely necessary that we formulate our research priorities, in most of Zambia, failed to establish themselves in the so~em part in the form of testable hypotheses which clearly bring out what ~e pre­ largely because the political and religious organization of some Ila­ sently take to be crucial aspects of our subject matter, and whtch ~an Tonga groups before the nineteenth century was in certain aspects be substantiated or refuted in the light of subsequent data collectiOn superior to, and had a greater survival power than, that found else­ precisely guided by these hypotheses. T~e point ~s that, ag~inst the where in the territory. With our present data it can only be speculated abundance of data, there is a lack of sophtsucated mterpretauve hypo­ what these superior aspects were: a more developed yet flexible system theses in much of the study of African society and history. of non-ascnpuve secular rulers, supported not only by small-scale war­ I believe that a greater insight into the history and sociology of the fare (which may have been general throughout pre-Lunda Zambia) territorial cult in Zambia can be gained by further testing, expansion 78 79 1 I l or refutation of the main hypotheses employed in the present study: stone Paper No. 30, 1960), 46; V. Turner, Sch1sm and Contmwty man Afrzcan SoCiety (Manchester, the hypothesis of the shrine cult as a systematic, formal complement Manchester Univ. Press, 1957), 319-20.

to the process of everyday ecological transformations in societies with 6 Typical examples are found in B. .Stefaniszyn, Social and Ritual Ltfe of the Ambo of Northern a subsistence economy; the hypothesis of pre-Luba Zambian societies Rhodesia (London, Oxford Univ. Press, 1964), 155-6; W.V. Brelsford, Fishermen of the Bangweulu as composed of feuding clan segments with little-developed secular Swamp (Livingstone, Rhodes-Livingstone Paper No. 12, 1946), 135; Doke, The Lambas, 239-40. leadership, and with priestly territorial cults maintaining a minimum 1 ]. Vansina, Kingdoms of the Savanna (Madison, Wisconsin Univ. Press, 1966), 19. of interlocal social and political order; and finally, the hypothesis of 8 Ibid., 30-l.

Luba and Lunda expansion as, among other aspects, a struggle for 9 A.I. Richards, Land, Labour and Diet in Northern Rhodesta (London, Oxford Univ. Press, legitimacy and power between immigrating chiefs and pre-existing 1939), 356-7. priestly cults - the latter-day varieties of the Zambian shrine cults 10 Richards's identification of the normal dwelling hut as just another type o( shrine is quite justi­ being interpretable as the differential outcome of this struggle. fied and equally applies to Zambian peoples other rhan the Bemba; see Colson, Social Organization of the Gwembe Tonga, 53. For the purpose of analysis in this essay, however, I shall concentrate on those shrines that do not primarily serve such a clearly utilitarian purpose as a house does.

n An account of the periodical erection of temporary 'shade huts' at permanent sacred spots is given by Stefaniszyn, Social and Ritual Life of the Ambo, 155-6. NOTES ••Turner, Schism and Continuity, Jl9, 126££.; M. McCulloch, The Southern Lunda and Related Peoples (London, International African Institute, 1951), 72-3; White, An Outline of Luvale . :. Organisation, 12. 1 The material for rhis essay is derived from rhe following sources: (a) most available written mate· •• See L. Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa (New York, M.F. Mansfield, 1898), 239, for a Mambire rial relevant to territorial cults in Zambia, with special emphasis on academic publications and wirh example. virtual neglect of two important categories of data: archival sources, and early accounts from Euro­ H See F. Melland, In Witch bound Africa (London, Cass, 1923), 138, for a Kaonde example. pean travellers and missionaries; (b) my own research in progress into various forms of religion in contemporary Zambia, and imo urban-rural relationships among the Nkoya. I am indebted to the •• See Ibid., 133, for a Kaonde example; Smith and Dale, The I /a-Speaking Peoples, I, 162, for an University of Zambia for a generous research grant, and to the following individuals: D.G. Jong­ Ila example; my field notes contain Nkoya examples. mans for instigating and supervising my earlier research into the territorial cult in norrh-westem I 16 1 shall not dwell here upon rhe subject of spirit provinces: the division of the landscape into Tunisia, which has strongly influenced me in writing the present essay; H.E. van Rijn for sharing i areas where each area is supposed to be associated with a particular spirit, the spirits being arranged the Zambian research with me; J. van Velsen for frequent advice and inspiration; P.A. Mutesi and in some hierarchical relationship with one another. For Zambia, the subject is properly diXumented D.K. Shiyore for competent research assistance; ] .M. Schoffeleers for his invitation to write rhe pre­ only for the Mambwe; see below, D. Werner, 'Miao spirit shrines of the Southern Lake Tanganyika sent essay; T.O. Ranger, J.K. Rennie, J.M. Schoffeleers, J. van Velsen, R.P. Werbner and M. Wright f for criticism of earlier drafts; and R.S. Roberts for final editorial efforts. ! Region: The case of Kapembwa', 89ff. There are some indications of similar notions in the ac­ counts of the Tonga shrine cults (see Colson, Social Organization of the Gwembe Tonga, 187-8; The 2 J.M. Schoffeleers, 'Attempt at a Synthesis of the Material on Territorial Cults' {Lusaka, Univ. of Plateau Tonga, passim; and T. Scudder, The Ecology of the Gwembe Tonga (Manchester, Man­ Zambia, Oral Presentation, Conference on the History of Central African Religious Systems, 1972). chester Univ. Press for Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, 1962), 111-12; on the other hand we can assume that Garbett's description of spirit provinces among the Korekore south of the Zambezi also applies 'E. W. Smith and A.M. Dale, The Ila-Speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia (London, Macmil­ I to the Zambian Korekore (Goba), about whose religion very little is known; see G. Kingsley Garbett, lan, 2 vols, 1920), II, 140ff.; K. Schlosser, Propheten in Africa (Braunschweig, A. Limbach, 1949), j 29££., 44f.; E. Colson, Social Organization of the Gwembe Tonga {Manchester, Manchester Univ. 'Religious aspects of political succession among the Valley Korekore' in E. Stoke~ a~~ R. B:own (eds), The Zambesian Past (Manchester, Manchester Univ. Press, 1966), 137-70; and Spttlt medmms Press for Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, 1960), 165; The Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia {Man· r chester, Manchester Univ. Press for Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, 1962), 84-5; 'Spirit possession as mediators in Korekore society' in Beattie and Middleton, Spirit Mediumship and Society in Africa, 104-27; A. Mvula, 'Exclusive report from our tense southern border', Sunday Times of Zambia, 15 among rhe Tonga of Zambia', in J. Beattie and J. Middlet~ {eds), Spirit Mediumship and Society in Africa (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969), 69-103, esp. 77; Soctal Consequences of Resettle· I Apr. 1973. However, in view of my discussion of shrines, ecology and landscape, more information ment (Manchester, Manchester Univ. Press for Institute for Social Research, 1971 ), 226-7; I. G. Cunni­ l of a spiritual partition of the landscape would be extremely valuable. son, Kinship and Local Organization on the Luapula (Livingstone, Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, 11 d. W.M.J. van Binsbergen, 'The dynamics of religious change in western Zambia', Ufahamu Com~unication No.5, 1950), 31; J. Torrend, 'A mysterious visitor to Batongaland', The Zambesi (1975-6), 6, iii, 69-87; 'Ritual, class and urban-rural relations: Elements for a Zambian case-study', MtSSion Record (1906-9), !1, iii, 548-9; C.M. Doke, The Lambas of Northern Rhodesia (London, B.B. Cultures et Developpement (1976), 8, 195·218; 'RegionaJ and non-regional cults of affliction in Wes­ Harrup, I 931 ), 230-1. For a Malawian parallel of the prophetic alterrtative to shrine cults see below, l tern Zambia', in R.P. Werbner (ed.), Regional Cults (London, Academic Press, A.S.A. Monograph ].M. Schoffeleers, 'The Chisumphi and Mbona Cults in Malawi: A comparative history', Hiff. 16, 1977), 141-75. ' For a summary of rhe relevant literature on Zambian non-communal rain-calling specialists see I 18 They are reported to be absent among the lla, Smith and Dale, The I /a-Speaking Peoples, I, 139. B. Reynolds, Magic, Divmatlon and Witchcraft among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia (Berkeley, Univ.ofCalifomiaPress, 1963), 128-9. i 19 Or, under modem conditions, where he identifies himself as a member of the village when, born in town, he visits his village home for the first time. 'C.M.N. White, An Outlme of Luvale Soctal and Political Organisation (Lusaka, Rhodes-Living· 20 Turner, Schism and Continuity, 292-3, and The Drums of Affliction (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 80 I 81 I 1968), 52ff.; C.M.N. White, 'Stratification and modem changes in an ancestral cult', Africa (1949), 19, "See van Binsbergen, 'Possession and Mediumship in Zambia'. 324-31, and Elements m Luvale Beliefs and Rituals (Manchester, Manchester Univ. Press, Rhodes­ "See J.P. Bruwer, 'Remnants of a rain cult among the Acewa', A.fncan Stud1es (1952), II, 179-82, Livingstone Paper No. 32, 1961 ), 46-7; my field notes contain Nkoya examples. for the Chauta institution among the Chewa; Werner, 'M1ao spirit shrines', and Decle; Three Years 21 See W.V. Brelsford, 'Rituals and medicines of the Chisinga iron-workers', Man (1949), 49, 27-9, m Savage Afnca, 293-4, on the Mambwe; A.I. Richards, 'The Bemba of North-Eastern Rhodesia', in for Chisinga ironworkers; C.M.N. White, 'Hunting and fishing in Luvale Society', African Studies E. Colson and M. Gluckman (eds), Seven Tribes of British Central Afnca (London, Oxford Univ. (1956), 15, 75-86 for Luvale fishing and hunting, and A Preliminary Survey of Luvale Rural Eco­ Press for Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, 1951), 185; Land, Labour and D1et, 358ff., and W.V. Brels­ nomy (Manchester, Manchester Univ. Press, Rhodes-Livingstone Paper No. 29, 1959), 14, for Luvale ford, Aspects of Bemba Chieftainship (Livingstone, Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, Communication honey-collectors; Doke, The Lambas, 242-3, for Lamba hunters and dancers; my field notes contain No. 2, 1944), 28-9, on female custodians of the Bemba royal relic shrines; and Oger, 'Spirit Possession Nkoya hunter examples. among the Bemba', on ngulu wives. 22 I.G. Gunnison, The Luapula Peoples of Northern Rhodesia (Manchester, Manchester Univ. "The religion of north-western Zambia is exceptionally thoroughly researched (see for example, Press for Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, 1959), 220-1; J. Slaski, 'Peoples of the lower Luapula Valley', Turner, Schism and Continuity; The Forest of Symbols (Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell Univ. Press, 1967); in W. Whiteley, The Bemba and Related Peoples of Northern Rhodesia (London, International Afri­ and The Drums of Affliction; White, Elements in Luvale Beliefs; McCulloch, The Southern Lunda, can Institute, 1950), 93; D. Werner, 'Some developments in Bemba religious history,' journal of Reli­ 72-83 and references cited therein; Melland, In W1tchbound Afnca, 127-236), but no evidence of a gzon m Afnca (1971), 4, 1-2, and 'Miao spirit shrines'; Richards, Land, Labour and Diet, 358; L. priestly interlocal shrine cult has been reported. Oger, 'Spirit Possession among the Bemba: A Linguistic Approach' (Lusaka, Univ., of Zambia, Con­ ••see Turner, Schism and Continwty, 251£. and Forest of Symbols, 280-98; for the Southern ference on the History of Central African Religious Systems, 1972). Lunda; Melland, In Witchbound Africa, 91, 96, 229ff., 243, 256ff., for the Kaonde; Richards, l.and, "Stefaniszyn, Sooal and Ritual Life of the Ambo, 156-7; Doke, The Lambas, 242-3. Labour and Diet, 344-5, for the Bemba; my field notes contain Nkoya examples. 24 The term 'culture hero' could be used for named, anthropomorphic ahistorical beings who are " It could be suggested that my tentative interpretation here is just a lapse back into the old c?nsidered ~o have i~troduced the 1~1 cultu_re or an important element of it; e.g., Mul~, who 'explanations' of magic and religion such as offered by Frazer, Lang and Freud. I doubt whether this fust domesucated ammals, and Kapmda, the first hunter, among the Bemba (see Oger, 'Spirit Posses­ is the case. The interpretation of religion faces at least two major problems: first, the recognition of sion among the Bemba'), and Kanyanyu Mangaba among the Tumbuka (see Univ. of Zambia, Lib­ some correspondence between certain religious and non-religious phenomena, and secondly (once rary, Lusaka, J. Banda, 'The History of Tumbuka-Speaking People of Lundazi District', n.d.). the general idea of such correspondence is agreed upon), the detailed explanation of this correspon­ dence which, among other aspects, invol'{es the attempt to account for the selection, in a given so­ 25 The High God can be defined as an invisible entity, postulated by the members of a society, and ciety, of particular religious forms to correspond with particular non-religious aspects. The recogni­ to whom they attribute the following characteristics: he is thought of as a person; he is the only mem­ tion of some correspondence between religious and non-religious aspects has been one of the main ber of a unique class of invisible entities; he may be considered the ultimate creator; he tends to be achievements of the nineteenth-century studies of such authors as Feuerbach, Marx, Fustel de Cou­ associated with the sky and with meteorological phenomena. langes and Durkheim. It is the second problem that dominates modem religious studies. Here it be­ 26 See W.M.J. van Binsbergen, 'Possession and Mediumship in Zambia: Towards a Comparative comes necessary to examine and contrast the formal structures of corresponding religious and non­ Approach' (Lusaka, Univ. of Zambia, Conference on the History of Central African Religious Sys­ religious forms in an attempt to discover a systematic and generalizable approach which will take us tems, 1972); and 'The dynamics of religious change'; M. Carter, 'Origin and Diffusion of Central beyond the psychologism and ad hoc interpretations based on one society only, to which so many African Cults of Affliction' (Lusaka, Univ. of Zambia, Conference on the History of Central African pioneers in this field have fallen victim. Religious Systems, 1972), and references cited in these papers. My attempt is along these lines. It does not stop at trivial claim of some correspondence between everyday 'ecological' activities and 'ecological' shrine ritual, but tries to point out the underlying 27 Melland, In Witchbound Africa, 155-6. Melland emphasizes that the rain ritual is the only occa­ specific correspondence between the constituent formal properties of these two socio-cultural sion in Kaonde religion known to him where ritual is directed to the High God. It is possible that systems. what he takes to be 'traditional' is in fact a recent innovation, particularly an aspect of the prophetic movement of Mupumani which reached the Kaonde at about the same time that Melland became "See G. Kay, A Social Geography of Zambia (London, Univ. of London Press, 1967), 21-2. their administrator; d. van Binsbergen, 'The dynamics of religious change', and references cited "As denounced by early sociologists such as E. Durltheim, Les Regles de Ia methode sociolog1que therein. (Paris, Alcan, 1897), and P. Sorokin, Contemporary Sociolog•cal Theones (New York, Harper, 1928). 28 M. Mainga, 'A history of Lozi religion to the end of the nineteenth century; in T.O. Ranger and •• See Colson, The Plateau Tonga, 92-3, 217, for a discussion of the Tonga village founder rnised to I. Kimambo (eds), The Historical Study of Afncan Religion (London, Heinemann, 1972), 96. the status of land spirit, 29 See H.W. Langworthy, 'Conflict among rulers in the history of Undi's Chewa Kingdom-, Trans­ ' In other words, she fails to give attention to the second interpretational problem as outlined, african Journal of HIStory ( 1971 ), 1, i, 1-23, and Zambta before 1890: Aspects of Pre-Colonial Htstory above, n.37. (London, Longman, 1972), 30, 34, 55; Schoffeleers, 'The Chisumphi and Mbona Cults'. "For a study of the communal functions of the shelter, particularly in defining the village as an 0 ' However, among the Luvale the 'clan formula' used in the village shrine ritual reinforces identi­ effective though rnpidly changing group, see W. Watson, 'The Kaonde village', Rhodes-L1vingstone fication (though not effective interaction) with widely dispersed clan members on the interlocal journal (1954), 15, 1-29, based on research by Watson and Van Velsen among the Kaonde. level; see White, An Outline of Luvale ... Orgamsation, 12. "This is the general situation in north-western Zambia. See Turner, Schism and ContinUity, espe­ "See below, Werner, 'M1ao spirit shrines', for Kapembwa; Brelsford, Fishermen of the Bangweulu cially Map 4, for the Lunda; W.R. Mwondela, Mukanda and Makish1: TraditiOnal Education m Swamp, 136·7, for Ikoma pool; Colson, Sonal Orgamzatwn of the Gwembe Tonga, 166, 187, for ex­ Northwestern Zambia (Lusaka, Neczam, 1972), 34-5, for the Luvale; my field notes contain Nkoya amples from southern Zambia. examples. 32 Colson, Sonal Orgamzatwn of the Gwembe Tonga, 61-2, 163-4, 20ff.; Scudder, The Ecolog;y of «Among the Nkoya the erection of a new village shnne is the first task when making a new vil­ the Gwembe Tonga, ll2-3 and pass1m. lage. 82 83 <5 See Colson, Soctal Orgamzat10n of the Gwembe Tonga, 98. tique of Gellner's Saints of the Atlas in Cahiers des Arts et Traditions Populmres, Revue du Centre des Traditions et des Arts Popu!a1res (1971), 4, 203-11. 16 For example, the rulingKazembe in 1914 removed the royal cult from Lunde, where the first Ka­ zembe was buried, to his capital, by making replicas of the old graves (even of those of the Mwaat 58 Smith and Dale, The lla-Speakin& Peoples, II, 186-7. Yaavs) and planting new trees on them, I.G. Gunnison (ed.), Hzstorical Traditions of the Eastern Lunda (Lusaka, Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, Communication No. 23, 1961), 112. •• Ibid. 60 Colson, Social Organization of the Gwembe Tonga, 164, 166. On a more limited scale the institu­ 17 See, for example, the Eastern Lunda's destruction of the Aushi national shrine Makumba, be­ tion has continued to exist: the payment of a chicken or goat by the person divined. as having caused low, n.93; the Ngoni's destruction o! rain shrines, J. McCracken, 'The nineteenth century in Malawi; the wrath of the spirits of the shrine. T.O. Ranger, 'The nineteenth century in Southern Rhodesia'; J. McOacken, 'African politics in I twentieth century Malawi', in T.O. Ranger (ed.), Aspects of Central Afncan History (London, Heine­ 61 Colson, The Plateau Tonga, 113, where it is mentioned as one of several factors giving high mann, 1968), 103, 121, 196. status to a local leader.

18 J.M. Schoffeleers, 'The history and political role of the M'Bona cult among the Mang'anja', in 62 Ibid., I 00. II Ranger and Kimambo, Histoncal Study, 73-94, and 'The Chisumphi and Mbona Cults'; G.G.K. 1 6 Gwassa, 'Kinjikitile and the ideology of Maji Maji', in Ranger apd Kimambo, Historical Study, 202- ' Ibid.; d. 218. 17; cf. Ranger and Kimambo, 'Introduction', ibid., 6-7. I 61 Garbett, 'Religious aspects of political succession', 137-70, and 'Spirit mediums as mediators', ' 104-27. •• I. G. Gunnison, History on the Luapula (London, Oxford Univ. Press, Rhodes-Livingstone Paper No. 21, 1951), 24, related the following Luapula tradition on the 'pygmies' preceding the 65 E. Durkheim, Les Formes elementmres de Ia VIC religteuse (Paris, Presses Universitaires de Bantu population around Lake Mweru: 'They are believed to have been of the same Clan as Ka­ I France, 1912), passim. ponto, the man who invaded the island (Kilwa). There are believ.ed to have been two survivors ... who made Kaponto promise to keep up the modes of prayer to ancestors, of rain ritual, and of the '' Vansina, Kingdoms of the Savanna, 82-3. Butwa society which was peculiar to the pygmies' (my italics). For hypotheses concerning the role of t 67 See C.M.N. White, 'The Balovale peoples and-their historical background', Rhodes·LIVmgstone Batwa shrine cults, see I. Linden, 'The Shrine of the Karongas at Mankhamba' (Lusaka, Univ. of journal (1949), 8, 26-41; Vansina, Kingdoms of the Savanna, 85-6, especially in relation to north­ Zambia, Conference on the History of Central African Religious Systems, 1972). western Zambia and adjacent areas.

5o J.D. Clarke, 'A note on the pre-Bantu inhabitants of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland', North­ 68 A.D. Roberts, A History of the Bemba (London, Longman, 1973), 38-93; Cunnison, Kmshtp and ern Rhodesian journal (1950), I, ii, 42-52; B.M. Fagan and D.W. Phillipson, 'Sebanzi: The Iron Age Local Organization, 11-12; and The Luapula Peoples, 30££., 147ff.; these refer to north-eastern Zam­ il sequence at Lochii).V3f; and the Tonga', journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (1965), 95, bia, where the growth of Luba and Lunda kinship in the eighteenth century formed the culmination 253-94. of a process of gradual immigration and political development that had been going on for several 51 C.M.N. White, 'The ethno-history of the upper Zambezi', African Studies (1962), 21, 10-27, and centuries. An Outline of Luvafe ... Organisation, 46; Vansina, Kingdoms of the Savanna, passim; W. Watson, II 69J'robably the construction of the high tower, as recorded in many other myths from the Bemba Tnbal Cohesion in a Money Economy (Manchester, Manchester Univ. Press for Rhodes-Livingstone and neighbouring peoples in Central Africa; see Roberts, A History of the Bemba, 30ff., 1-47ff. Institute, 1959), 12-13; Gunnison, Kinship on the Luapula, 7·8, 12, and History on the Luapula, 23-4. 70 A. Tweedie, 'Towards a history of the Bemba from oral tradition', in Stokes and Brown, The 52 See for example, E.E. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1940); M. Fortes, zambesian Past, 204 (my italics). The passage on cleaning the shrines is not included in Roberts's The Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi (London, Oxford Univ. Press, 1945); M. Fortes, 'The synthetic account (A History of the Bemba, 40) of Bemba myths of origin. structure of unilineal descent groups', American Anthropologist ( 1953 ), 55, 17-41; A. Southall, A lur Soc•ety (Cambridge, W. Heffer, 1956); J. Middleton and D. Tait (eds), Tribes without Rulers (Lon­ n See for example, Roberts, History of the Bemba, 346ff., for Luchele references. don, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1958). 12 Brelsford, Fishermen of the Bangweulu Swamp, 130-1; Werner, 'Miao spirit shrines'; Gunnison, " B.L. Peters, 'Some structural aspects of the feud among the camel-herding Bedouin of Cyre­ The Luapula Peoples, 218ff. naica', Africa (1967), 31,261-82. 75 For Luchele see references in Roberts, History of the Bemba, 346; for the theme of hitting the tree, see Univ. of Zambia, Library, B. Chimba, 'A History of the Baushi of Zambia', n.d.; J.C. Chi­ 5< J. Barnes, 'African models in the New Guinea Highlands', Man (1962), 62,5-9. wale, Royal Praises and Praise Names of the Lunda Kazembe of Northern Rhodesia (Lusaka, "M. Gluckman, 'Introduction', in J.C. Mitchell and J.A. Barnes, The Lamba Village (Cape Rhodes-Livingstone Inst., Communication No. 25. 1962), 50. Even what is claimed to be the most Town, Cape Town Univ. Press, Communication from the School of African Studies, New Series No. important (tree) shrine of the Ila has a spear-head embedded in its bark, 'remarkable trees in 24, 1950), 1-20. Zambia', Orbit (1973), 2, i, 10-11, although, as we shall see in a later section, Luba-ization of the Ila has not been successful. 56 Colson, The Plateau Tonga, 102-3; Turner, Schism and Continuity; J. van Velsen, The Politics of Kmsh•P (Manchester, Manchester Univ. Press for Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, 1964). ~·Werner, 'Some developments in Bemba religious history'.

"E. Gellner, 'Saints of the Atlas', in J.A. Pitt-Rivers (ed.), Mediterranean Countrymen (The 75 See Richards, 'The Bemba', and Land, Labour and Diet, 359-60. Hague, Mouton, 1963), 145-57, and Saints of the Atlas (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1969); 76 Roberts, A History of the Bemba, 69-71. W.M.J. van Binsbergen, 'Religie en Samenleving: Een Studie over bet Bergland van N.W. Tunesie' (Univ. of Amsterdam, unpubl. Drs of Soc. Sc. thesis, 1971); 'Religion and Regional Integration in "Werner, 'Some developments in Bemba religious history, 14-15; see Oger, 'Spuit Possession the Highlands of N. W. Tunisia 1850-1970' (Nairobi, East African Universities Social Sciences Coun­ among the Bemba', for a similar view. cil Conference, 1971; a revised version will appear in MJddle Eastern Studies in 1978); see also my cri- "Oger, 'Spirit Possession among the Bemba'; Werner, 'Some developments in Bemba religious

84 85 9 history; Slaski, 'Peoples of the lower Luapula Valley', 93; Richards, Land, Labour and Diet, 358, and 1 M. Gluckman, 'The Lozi of Barotseland in North-Western Rhodesia', in E. Colson and M. 'The Bemba'; Whiteley, The Bemba, 30. Gluckman(~), Seven Tribes of British Central Africa, 1-93, esp. 85; Mainga, 'A history of Lozi reli­ gion', 102ff.; V. Turner, The Lozi Peoples of North-Western Rhodesia (London, Oxford Univ. Press, 79 R.J. Apthorpe, 'Mythical Mrican political structures, Northern Rhodesia', in A. Dubb (ed.), 1952), 50; Langworthy, 'Conflict among rulers in the history of Undi's Chewa Kingdom', 1-23 esp. 9; Myth m Modern Afnca (Lusaka, Rhodes-Livingstone Inst., The Fourteenth Conference Proceed­ I. Linden, 'The Shrine of Karongas', 28-9,55-6, for the Undi Kingdom. ings, 1960), 18-37. 92 Cunnison, The Luapula Peoples, 217-18. 80 Ibid., 20. 9! Ibid., 219-20; Chimba, 'A History of the Baushi', 6-7; G. Kay, Chief Kalaba's Village (Manches­ 81 R.J. Apthorpe, 'Northern Rhodesia: Clanship, chieftainship, and Nsenga political adaptation', ter, Manchester Univ. Press, Rhodes-Livingstone Paper No. 35, 1964), 16; R. Philpott, 'Makumba - in Apthorpe, From Tnbal Rule to Modern Government (Lusaka, Rhodes-Livingstone Inst., The the Baushi tribal God', journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (1936), 66, 189-208. Thirteenth Conference Proceedings, 1959), 69-98. .. Werner, 'Mtao spirit shrines'. 82 Richards, Land, Labour and Diet, 358, and, especially, Oger, personal communication, 5 Sept. 90 1972; Fr Oger has written a paper in Bemba on this and related subjects, which unfortunately was Brelsford, Fishermen of the Bangweulu Swamp, 136-7. not available for the present study. 96 Vansina, Kingdoms of the Savanna, 245-6. 8s W.V. Brelsford, 'Shimwalule: A study of a Bemba chief and priest'. African Studies (1942), I, 2ff., 97 1bid. 15, 21; Aspects of Bemba Chteftamshap; Oger, personal communication. 98 Brelsford, Aspects of Bemba Chieftainship, 3. 84 Mainga, 'A History of Lozi religion', 96-7; G.C. Clay, History of the Mankoya District (Living­ 99 stone, Rhodes-Livingstone Inst., Communication No.4, 1946), ll; my field notes on Luchazi history. See Colson, The Plateau Tonga, 207; and the similar view in M.G. Billing, 'Northern Rhodesia: Government policy in the utilization of indigenous political systems', in Apthorpe, From Tribal 85 See the prominence of the royal bracelet in early Lunda traditions in I.G. Gunnison, Histoncal Rule to Modern Government, 1-16. Traditions of the Eastern Lunda (Lusaka, Rhodes-Livingstone Inst., Communication No. 23, 1961), 100 2,6-7. D Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches m South Africa (London, J. Murray, 1899), 363; I. Schapera (ed.), Lzvmgstone's Private journals, 1851-53 (London, Chatto & Windus, 1960), 145- 86 It is attractive to view Mukanda (boys' puberty ritual), a central religious institution among Lu­ 6,207. vale, Luchazi, Chokwe, Mbunda and Southern Lunda, as an alternative to the priestly interlocal shrine cult: see White, Elements in Luvale Beliefs, 1-27; McCulloch, The Southern Lunda, 85ff.; IDt W.H. Anderson, On the Trail of Livingstone (California, Pacific Press, 1919). Mwondela, Mukanda and Makishi, passim; M. Gluckman, 'The role of the sexes in Wiko circumci­ 102 J.L. Myers, 'A religious survey of the Batonga', Proceedings of the General Missionary Confer­ sion ceremonies', in M. Fortes (ed.), Social Structure (London, Oxford Univ. Press, 1949), 145-67; ence of Northern Rhodesia, 1927 (Lovedale, S.A. Lovedale Institution Press, 1927), 127-32. Turner, Forest of Symbols, 151-279. Mukanda certainly provides interlocal communications, some­ times over hundreds of kilometres, and ceremonial specialization which might take on political func­ •Ds Colson, Social Organization of the Gwembe Tonga, 167-8. tions comparable to those of the interlocal priestly shrine cults; see C.M.N. White, 'Factors in the so­ cial organisation of the Luvale', African Stud1es (1959), 14,97-112, and Elements in Luvale Beliefs, 1- 10< Smith and Dale, II, 180-1; Jaspan, The 1la-Tonga Peoples of North-Western Rhodesia (Lon­ 2. The idea of Mukanda forming an alternative to the territorial cult is further corroborated by Col­ don, International Mrican Institute, 1953), 41; R.J. Fielder, 'Social Change among the Ila-speaking son's data on Tonga immigrants: while in the past immigrants to Tongaland had always organically Peoples of Northern Rhodesia' (Manchester Univ., unpubl. M.A. thesis, 1965). been assimilated into Tonga society - including adoption of Tonga ritual - Luvale immigrants tD> B. Fagan, 'The Iron Age sequence in the Southern Province of Northern Rhodesia', The who have penetrated the area since the early decades of this century remained in separate villages journal of African History (1963), 4, 157-77, esp. 174££. and, far from adopting Tonga interlocal territorial cults, continued to send their boys to Mukanda initiation camps in the west, E. Colson, 'The assimilation of aliens among Zambian Tonga', in R. 106 Ibid.; Fagan and Phillipson, 'Sebanzi: The Iron Age sequence', 274-5. Cohen and J. Middleton (eds), From Tribe to Nation in Africa, (Scranton, Chandler, 1970), 35-54, tD7 D.J. Siddle, 'Land use and agricultural potential', in D.H. Davies (ed.), Zambia in Maps (Lon­ esp. 38. Mukanda, not unlike nyau in eastern Central Mrica, seems to represent an even older stage don, Univ. of London Press, 1971), 76-7; D. Phillipson, 'The early iron age in Zambia: Regional va­ than the priestly territorial cult, and to be associated with a hunting and gathering economy rather riants and some tentative conclusions', The journal of African History (1968), 9, 191-211. than with a more developed agriculture or husbandry; see White, 'The Balovale peoples', 30. Much more research is needed before the place of the Mukanda complex in Central Mrican religious his­ tD8 Fagan and Phillipson, 'Sebanzi: The Iron Age sequence'. tory can be determined. Recent research by R. Papstein (for his doctoral thesis at the University of California, Los Angeles) is likely to throw further light on the religious history of N.W. Zambia, and •oo Fagan, 'The Iron Age sequence'; Iron Age Cultures m Zambia (London, Chatto & Windus, 2 particularly on the relationship between immigrant chiefs, chiefly shrine cults, and Mukanda. vols, 1967), II, 135-9, 142££.; Fagan and Phillipson, 'Sebanzi: The Iron Age sequence'. 87 White. 'The Balovale peoples', 30, 33-4, and An Outline of Luvale ... Organisation, 46, approv­ liD M.P. Miracle, 'Plateau Tonga enterpreneurs in historical interregional trade', Rhodes-Living­ ingly summarized in Vansina, Kmgdoms of the Savanna, 85-6. stone journal (1959), 26,34-50. 88 See A.I. Richards, 'Keeping the king divine', Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute Ill Univ. of Zambia, Library, Chief Silocha Mukuni II; 'A Short History of the Baleya People ol for 1968 (1969), 23-5; Land, Labour and Diet, 359-60; and 'The Bemba'; Brelsford, Aspects of Bemba Kalomo District', n.d.; M. Muntemba, 'The political and ritual sovereignty among the Mukuni Leya Chieftamship, especially 37-8. ofZambia',ZambiaMuseum journal (1970), 1, 28-39. 89 Brelsford, 'Shimwalule', and Aspects of Bemba Chaeftamshap, 2-3. m Colson, 'The assimilation of aliens among the Zambtan Tonga'. A highly intercstmg group for further research is the ethmc cluster of the 'Baluba', whom Smith and Dale, The Jla-Speakmg 90 Werner, 'Some developments in Bemba religious history'; Oger, 'Spirit Possession among the Peoples, I, xxvii, 25ff., 40, 123, 313, report as living at the periphery of the Ila and as lla-speaking. Bemba'. 86 87 "'Melland, In W1tchbound Afnca, 29 30 The Kaonde are generally considered to be of Luba ex­ traction '"Smith and Dale The I la Speakmg Peoples, II, 180ff

115 lbtd 181 2 116 Van Bmsbergen Rehgte en Samenlevmg cntique of Gellner s Samts of the Atlas, and 'Reh­ gwn and Regwnal Integration , passim 117 DR Archer, Ram fall m Davtes, Zamb1a m Maps, 20-1 Archer summanzes the pattern of ram­ fall m Zambta Towards the south there 1s a constderable decrease m average annual ramfall and a considerable mcrease m annual fluctuatiOns m ramfall (1 e greater uncertamty and unpredictabt­ hty) 118 Bmsbergen, The dynamtcs of rehgtous change', 'Ritual, class and urban-rural relations', 'Re­ gwnal and non regtonal cults of affhctton', 'Rehgrous mnovauon and pohttcal confhct m Zambta A contnbution to the mterpretatlon of the Lumpa Rismg', m W M J van Bmsbergen and R BmJten­ hmJs (eds), Rel.gwus Innovatwn m Modern Afncan Soe&ety (Leyden, Afnka-Studtecentrum, Afncan Perspectives No I of 1976), 101-35

88